Final Thoughts on Baseball 2020 and a Few about Football

The Dodgers have done it. Both Los Angeles teams have won their respective championships (except the Rams, but LA fans, don’t get your hopes up). After a game where the Rays practically could’ve handed it to them, practically no offense generated.

A lot of things changed before and after this game. But let me clarify. I guarantee that Randy Arozarena will not be good on Opening Day 2021, I guarantee it. One-hit wonder like Pete Alonso is shaping up to be, sadly, hitting .378 throughout the whole postseason, which is more than anyone could imagine, anyone, and it was all for nothing. But here, the scrappy underdogs (the Cinderella Story, the one who everyone falls in love with, the comeback kids, the down-9-in-the-ninth-rally-to-come-back-and-win-in-extra-innings kids) couldn’t win, sadly.

Also, BREAKING NEWS, it is now universally accepted that you must take out your pitchers when they give up three hits, and the third one being a single. That’s exactly what Kevin “Brains Behind the Operation” Cash did exactly that, taking out Cy Young award winner Blake Snell in the sixth inning, who only gave up two hits, and only one earned run. That blew the game out, fumbled the bag, anything that means choking up and dying right there on the mound.

Blake Snell was obviously infuriated, using some choice words, and walking off the mound in disgust. We’re going to be seeing Snell in another uniform come July 2021 (trade deadline). I’ll be surprised if he even trudges along to July of 2021.

The Dodgers really do have it all, great pitching (though that’s their weak spot), the hitting is star-studded, apart from the catcher, and this poses the question – do the Dodgers really have it in them to even make the DS next year, with such an old team?

Think about it, and I’ll give you my answer on Sunday.

Football - The Titans kicker, Stephen Gostkowski, kicked the Titans out of a 6-0 start to the season, literally. But, the Steelers, who are a decent team, but definitely not 6-0 quality, got the dub and will move on to face the Ravens, who are more like the Tinkerbells this season. I put Chase Claypool in my starting lineup and boy did I make a mistake, he got -0.8 points, haha. Justin Herbert and Ben R. (on the Steelers) are fantasy sleepers and should pick them up immediately, a catfish good player is James Connor, but the Steelers don’t use the run game, they pass. Everyone in the Steelers passing corps is amazing, just to keep that in mind. Ben R. had an off game, 268 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions, but he’s still up there in my eyes. Juju Smith Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and Eric Ebron all had great games, but I would hold off on taking them, as they had a pretty bad whole season, only had a great game just recently. Ryan Tannehill continued his Tannehillian prowess, playing almost like Patrick Mahomes minus the strength, speed, and overall greatness of his wide receivers (the Titans have Walmart baggers). Derrick Henry had 75 yards and a touchdown (but I’m still hounding the poor guys who have him in all my leagues for him, my guess is they’ll finally give him). But, AJ Brown is amazing, 153 yards and a touchdown? Wow, plus Corey Davis added 35 yards and a touchdown. The Titans, get to the AFC Championship and lose, sounds very Titanian. 

2020 MLB World Series – Play Ball! 

The 2020 MLB World Series got underway and boy oh boy is it getting good.

The first game started off well and as expected. The Dodgers won 8-3. Kevin Kiermaier is again a candidate for the underrated player of the year and the playoffs (an award created by me), as he is over and over and over with Jose Ramirez, on the Indians, in that category. Let me clarify that, Kiermaier is talked about because he is a role player on a team with only role players, and is one of the most well-known there, whereas Ramirez is never talked about, except maybe for his 2018 30-30-30 (30 dingers, 30 doubles and 30 stolen bases) season. That’s briefly mentioned by SportsCenter and never talked about again until the end of the season.

Ramirez is in the shadows because of Frankie Lindor, and Shane Bieber (totally not Justin’s cousin) and Carlos Santana, but I don’t really get why, because he’s a .200 hitter, but maybe because he has 25 homers per year and definitely because of his mammoth biceps.

Now, after you were lost in my opinions, I was talking about Kevin Kiermaier because he had the most RBIs for the Rays that night, at two. This should be easy pickings for the Dodgers because of their many superstars, like the Bucks, Lakers, 76ers, Celtics and 2016 Warriors collaborated and created a superteam. Mookie Betts, Corey Seager, Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Will Smith (dynamic young toddler*), Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, Clayton Kershaw, and Joe Kelly (the GOAT, for making a fool of Carlos Correa) are all amazing.

WILL SMITH – Doesn’t he look 8?

Now, dear readers, little do you know that I just read their Game 1 lineup, starter, and closer, fooled you there, young padawan, you have much to learn, my little grasshopper. In the second game, the Rays took over with their two best players, Joey Wendle and Brandon Lowe (both great players, just give them time, like you, my little grasshoppers). Both had three RBIs, both had a homer apiece. The Hollywood Red Carpet, filled with stars, much like the Dodgers lineup, only collected four runs on five hits, then again, it is the 2019 Cy Young winner on the mound. The Rays and their four fans celebrate!

Cue the clown calliope music, Kenley Jansen. Get dressed up in the big goofy shoes, Chris Taylor. Make sure the handshake-buzzer is buzzing, Will Smith. Put the whole suit on, and don’t forget the nose, Dodgers. Those last seven innings were a comedy of errors and errant pitching/defense. 40% of the game’s runs were scored in those last seven innings, ok for two non-playoff teams playing each other, but two teams with the honor to go to the World Series, no. Is the flower squirting? Almost every inning, the Dodgers would inch out, oh nope, the Rays tie it, inch, tie, inch tie, finally we get back to the last inning. We are in the tie stage if you are wondering. With two outs, everyone is thinking, ok, inch state coming right up, nope, Jansen fumbles the bag. Don’t trip in those ridiculously large shoes. Give me a handshake, why don’t ya? BzZZzzZZzZZzzzZZZZZZZ. Brett Philips is up, and he drives a single into right-center, ohhhh great, and a tie game. Ah hah ha, not a tie game, as Randy Arozarena dives home to win the game. Squeak, squeak. The Dodgers won the most recent game and will play the perhaps deciding game tomorrow.

In Fantasy Football, last week, I went 1-3, not great, but it’s what I come to expect. My best team, the one with Kyler Murray, Devin Singletary, Kenyan Drake, Amari Cooper, and Terry Mclaurin, is now 5-2, best in my division, tied for best in the league. My strategy is to trade Amari Cooper and hopefully Devin Singletary for a haul, but the people in my league are fit to be NFL GMs, protecting their players with their life, so I’m getting stonewalled in that league, but I’m inching my way forward. Now I am very angry with the Green Bay Packers, they sat Aaron Jones, because it was a game-time decision and by the time he was ruled out, my players were locked in, meaning you can’t change their position in your lineup. This is the league where I’m 4-3, second in the division, and I have Saquon Barkley, Courtland Sutton and Dak Prescott, not luckily for me, they’re all out for the season. The one thing that I hate about fantasy is that almost all people are inactive, so while the active teams are putting up 150 points, the score is 150 to 54, which is just not fun at all.

Fortunately, I have two leagues where I am in contact with people, and two without, but even in the contacting ones, some are still inactive. What’s going to work for me, and for everyone, is finding diamonds in the rough, that helps so much, right now, when half of teams are injured, take the good backups, and swoop down on them before other quick thinkers do, and horde them on your team, next week, you’re the one that’s going to put up 160. In my final league, I have Deshaun Watson, Aaron Jones, Tyreek Hill, Amari Cooper, and Kenny Golladay, and I’m last. Huh?????? And my opponents don’t have that much IQ with their teams.

Rough stretches for Cowboys fans, huh? Dak goes out, Andy Dalton gets a cheap shot to the head and now some guy named Ben DiNucci has to step up, yikes. Ezekiel Elliot is also not turning heads with his play and half the defense is injured. Be nice to Cowboys fans that you know, please? Haha.

Probably on Thursday, I will post a football update, but no promises, I am really overflowing with work for high school entrance and homework. 

Sports from Three Corners

UPDATE My World Series prediction – sorry Metsies, is a step closer to fulfillment.

The World Series is finally set, in a year where baseball, and sports really, interest shrunk. Thankfully, the NBA Championship wasn’t a nail biter and the World Series is featuring a team with a chip (losing to the Astros in the World Series) on their shoulders and then some weird team from down south with a payroll which is a little higher than the profit a restaurant makes per night. The Dodgers, who are like the Lakers but with more cornerstones (when you think of a cornerstone {theoretically, of course}, you think rectangle or square, but this team’s more of an octagon, with cornerstones everywhere) and they’re the obvious favorites to win.

Think of the Yankees as the Bucks, and the Rays as the Heat. The Rays beat the Yanks and are now up against a powerhouse. Now, the Rays have Randy Arozarena who’s been on an absolute tear, and solid hitters all around. The defense isn’t really existent, apart from Kevin Kiermaier while Joey Wendle, Willy Adames are just emerging. In Game 7, the Braves got out to an early lead and stayed on top for a while.

Until the catcher, Will Smith, who looks like he’s 8 years old, got a single that knocked in two runs. Then, the Braves got on top again but not for long as Enrique Hernandez hit a rare, and I mean rare homer. Then, Cody Bellinger, who has the most varied likes and dislikes (that means 50% of baseball fans like him, 50% hate him), hit a clutch two-run homer and that did it. Now, let’s see him do that in the World Series.

Did the Atlanta Falcons get their first win, Yes? What did it cost? An Atlanta Braves loss? 

NBA Finals are History

As expected, the Lakers led by LeBron James and some guy named Anthony Davis together with the other unknown scrubs on the Lakers to a finals win. And now, I’m not going to express my opinion on the GOAT conversation, because that way half of you will leave. But, people will say that LeGoa-sorry-Bron’s fourth ring is actually the Heat’s ring because they practically gave it to him.But, then Michael Jordan’s rings should all actually be Scottie’s ring. So all of you Jordan-lovers out there, stop, and think. I don’t know why JR Smith was shirtless by the time the clock struck 12… seconds; he shouldn’t have because he’s played a total of about 7 minutes during the finals and went 1/654684981. Danny Green might as well throw up a cinderblock every time he shoots because that has a better chance of going into the bucket than a basketball. So, the Lakers might want to trade, sorry, dump off Green to a low-level team that’s willing to get worse and then get someone much much much much better. The Lakers don’t need much more help; they’re really good, except their guards, Rajon Rondo is old, Danny Green, horrible, Kentavious Caldwell Pope, flash in the pan, Alex Caruso, eh, and Quinn Cook, I’m sorry, who? Now, as I said in the last post, the Heat are going to look scary, go and check that post out. I’ll cover the NBA offseason in one of the future weeks.

Major League Baseball

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees, I don’t get it, a team of mediocre players, in a perfect world, a mediocre team, and they’re supposed to be a mediocre team. But they’re the number one seed in the East and just beat out the world-famous Yankees – mediocre enough for you? The Yankees have next year to look forward to, and every other year until the cyborg gorillas/mammoths take over the world while us Mets fans need to be happy or sad on an inning-to-inning basis. They also just beat the Astr-sorry, Asterisks in 7 games, which shouldn’t have happened, but even though Tampa Bay has 4 fans, it’s owner, the owner’s wife, the creepy brother in law who sucks up to the owner, and Steve, the janitor working at Tropicana Field for 15 years. 60,004 people tuned into the series per game, the 60,000 being people wanting the Asterisks to lose and even though only four people are fans of the Rays, America is happy because the (you know how I used to call them the ‘Stros, before they got exposed, well, let me introduce you to my new invention:) ‘Sterisks lost and some team from down south, maybe Louisiana, lost.

The A’s, who on paper, are 20x better than the Rays on any given day, got sent away by the Astros? The Astros never did have a bad team, they actually had the best team in baseball, player-wise, so not a surprise that the A’s lost, except the scandal decreased everyone’s of the Astros by 80%.

The Dodgers beat the Padres, no surprise there as I have the Dodgers winning it all. The Padres have a great team, advance it a little more with the 1.2 million great prospects they still have in the farm system, and they’re going to go on a streak like the UCLA Bruins, 88 games, and that’s in a college basketball season. Let me do some math for you, according to ncaa.com, a typical D1 basketball season is 35-40 games long if the team makes March Madness. Just a little nugget of information. Going into the last day of the Bruins’ streak, 1/19/74, they had won 218 out of 223 games dating back to the 1966-67 season. That’s 97.75%. (The stats where I got these from is the Notre Dame website, and they’re the ones that knocked off the Bruins stretch, soo, may not be accurate, but what I’m about to tell you gets crazier). In a regular season, that would equal 159 games won. With all those prospects, for 10 years or more, that would be the greatest stretch in MLB history, and, in professional sports.  Your move, San Diego Padres.

After the Marlins got a little shot of hope and beat the Cubs 2-0, the Braves went to work, winning 3-0, and are now fighting for a chance to squeeze into the World Series to (if this was last year, I’d say, ‘absolutely crush, demolish and pulverize the Rays’ but, this yearrrr, I don’t know) fight for a chance against the Rays.

Sorry for no football for two weeks, guys. Just fantasy.

For the two weeks that I have gone missing from football, I went 5-3. Crrrrrazy right?? 4-0 two weeks ago and 1-3 last week and it’s not looking great this week. But, right below, I will be talking about this week’s football and then give you a midweek update about how I did in fantasy this week.

Prayers for Dak Prescott and his family. Dak seriously injured his leg which costs him his season for sure and may not be the player he was ever again. Dak was locked in this season, leading all NFL passers going into this week by almost 200 yards.

Titans beat Texans. I have one very important question: How is Ryan Tannehill this good? How are the Titans 5-0? Why did everyone think Derrick Henry is going to be a flash in the pan? And why did I just ask four questions? Well, the answer key is… I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know and, “because there’s a lot of questions.” Derrick Henry is amazing, he pulverized me in fantasy, 212 yards, and two touchdowns, yikes. Deshaun Watson, who I have in four leagues had a great game, 335 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions, how, may I ask, am I not winning in those leagues?? And, by the way, if anyone of you have any suggestions on my fantasy teams, strategies, or anything, please direct message my father on Twitter and disperse them there. Next week I will be giving my own, but I’m out dry, this year is horrible for fantasy football.

The week I traded Julio Jones for a haul of mediocre players, (sound familiar to you?), he goes crazy for 137 yards and two touchdowns. Just. My. Luck. The Falcons run game is nonexistent, Todd Gurley’s arthritis is acting up, yet again and Brian Hill can definitely not carry the load. Matt Ryan had a game of his life, 75% completion, 371 yards, and 4 touchdowns, the same Matt Ryan, the old guy along with Drew Brees that thinks the water bucket is his teammate/target and the water boy is the defender? Him? Kirk Cousins continues his strangeness, a truckload of yards, 343 in this case, and a lot of touchdowns and interceptions, 3 for both here. The rookie receivers are having field days catching the ball, crazy, really. Justin Jefferson? 166 yards and two touchdowns. Wow, just wow, taken at the end of the first round and he’s acting like Randy Moss with more speed.

Well, those are the top two games of the week, and more coming mid-week, a short post talking about fantasy and another couple of games.

They’re Dancing in Los Angeles!

The NBA Finals were never in doubt, right? LeBron is not washed, repeat, LeBron is not washed. Anthony Davis can do everything and everything is going smoothly. They have the two big men who only get paid for their rebounding, JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard. Kentavious Caldwell Pope and Danny Green, (who literally hurt me when he missed the wide-open shot to seal the game), are two knockdown shooters who line out the lineup. The reserves aren’t too snazzy, Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma lead the way, but not much shooting there, except for Kuzma, but he’ll do anything and everything, he’ll be the next Kareem Abdul Jabaar times Michael Jordan if it means LeBron doesn’t trade him. I don’t know how Frank Vogel is leading the charge for the Lake Show, I mean, the talent’s there, but without good coaching, you’ll be just as good as the local bingo team (watch out though, Aunt Josie’s a rebounding threat, and Old Sammy’s an all-around legend). Not that Vogel’s bad, it’s just that I would expect someone like Gregg Popovich to lead this team.

Here come the Heat now, with no one as their true point guard, but Jimmy Butler will play point forward, the two best catch and shoot shooters in the league, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson (even though Herro has cooled down since the Boston series, he needs to heat up tonight if the Heat will have a chance. I would never take the Heat starting lineup if I had a choice, they play small ball without shooting at all five positions and a non-speedy and old point guard. The bench needs a lot of work, it’s the weak spot for the team, Kendrick Nunn and Kelly Olynyk are the best on the bench, and Kelly should not even be in the same sentence as “second-best on the bench” Eric Spoelstra has been amazing, this team would be nowhere near the playoffs without this mastermind.  Who is the Pascal Siakam of coaching, UNDER-rated, UNDER-rated, UNDER-rated. Thinking towards the 2020-2021 season, with a different point guard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, their lineup will be: Austin Rivers, Jordan Clarkson at PG, Duncan Robinson at SG, Jimmy Butler at SF, Giannis Antetokounmpo at PF, and Bam Adebayo at C and Tyler Herro at sixth man, let that sink in for a moment...

I think that the Heat will force 7 games, but LeBron will charge through everyone and win Game 7 for his fourth ring. 

Well, the Lakers have done it 106-93, quite possibly by sedating all the Heat players, or Frank Vogel paid Eric Spoelstra to make plays for the Heat that make them play for the other team. But wow, what a rout, winning by 13 but up by 30, yes, three zero at the start of the fourth quarter. LeBron James gets his fourth ring, Anthony Davis was saved from a ruined career on the Pelicans and now won a ring. Maybe Kyle Kuzma won’t get traded because LeBron would be distracted. But, Bronny Jr. will get a whooping of a lifetime because he posted a picture of him smoking weed on Instagram. But, for Heat fans, don’t be sad, next year you’re going to be plowing through anyone in your way, with Giannis paving the way.

And now for the MLB Playoffs*

The Mets are now 100% set for the offseason, and there is a lot of big fish in the ocean.

The Mets have these big rods, ready to snatch them up, but if my arch-nemesis, Sandy Alderson, gets accepted as GM, he’s going to be very happy just sitting in his big ol’ chair and watching the market unfold.

Later, near the beginning of the new season, he’ll sign a relief pitcher out of Cuba that’s averaging 8.3 BB/9. This is also the same for what Brodie van Wagenen would do. Except, van Wagenen comes with a twist. He’s going to sign a completely unneeded player, like Yuli Gurriel.

But, these are my educated predictions, because I think Sandy doesn’t know how to make a move because he has never made any big moves (and the Mets need that) and Brodie van Wagenen traded the future of this franchise for someone who’s at the end of his career and is not producing at all while Edwin Diaz, who has 6 saves and 4 blown saves, which is, I think the worst rate in baseball history.

The baseball playoffs are the blandest playoffs in playoff history, but, it’s still the playoffs. Don’t get alarmed, I’m still going to cover them, it’s just that there have barely been any upsets, and, the Astros won – sadly. Both of the number one seeds, the Dodgers and the Rays, disposed of their opponents the Brewers and the Blue Jays, respectively, quickly and quietly. In a game where the teams were literally the most equal in baseball history, the Indians and the Yankees, the boys from the Bronx pulled out and won 2-0, routing the Indians both times.

The Cards went up 1-0 against the Padres, but, how can you fight against the explosiveness of Fernando Tatis Jr., my favorite player not on the Mets, Manny Machado, and Eric Hosmer? You can’t. The Padres came back and won 2-1.

The Astros won against a fairly good team, the Twins, which I never saw coming. I mean, everyone thought without the garbage cans and the signals they would be bad, but, I guess the Twins were that bad, because, the Astros can’t be good.

Then, the Miami Marlins pull out, yes you’re hearing me correctly, against the Cubs. Quoting their Twitter post, 10 out of 10 chiropractors recommend to not sleep on the Marlins, which is true, very true. Corey Dickerson is a much underrated player in the MLB, but on the Marlins, he’s like Jeff Bezos crossed with the Queen of England – players pray to him. The Marlins pitching was great in both games, allowing only 1 run in 18 innings, how crazy is that. When maybe two years ago they were allowing 8 runs in 9 innings. All the Marlins needed in game two was a homer from Garrett Cooper, the Magneuris Sierra RBI was just insurance. By the way, no one scored a run until Cooper sent one to left. Only five hits from the Cubs in the second one, underwhelming, these Cubbies.

I want to say next year, but, maybe something else will happen like this. The A’s, who really are going to make a deeeep playoff run, maybe even beat the Astros and then stroll along to the ALCS, where they will be killed by the Yankees, but hey, Billy Beane’s, the GOAT of all MLB GMs, legacy gets even better.

The last series, the Braves, had to literally walk to the end, no competition, no stress whatsoever, no runs scored from the Reds, and the Braves just had to produce a few runs, crazy if you ask me.

I had 5 out of 8 predictions correct, the only two that didn’t get right were the Twins, the White Sox, and the Cubs series. I had them winning instead of the Astros, the A’s, and the Marlins.

So my next calls:

TB vs Yanks – Yanks

Twins vs White Sox – Twins

Dodgers vs Padres – Dodgers

Marlins vs Braves – Braves

Yankees vs Twins – Yankees

Dodgers vs Braves – Dodgers 

World Series:

Yankees vs Dodgers – I’ll let you know in a next blogpost.

The Series to Watch: All of them, actually. But, if I had to choose the most compelling one, then definitely the Yankees and Rays. The Rays are one of those teams that are overflowing with completely mediocre players. The Rays are also something like the A’s back when Beane took over. A new team, a new idea, and the traditional baseball fans didn’t like it. But, hey, look where it got them. But, on the other side, good and new can’t compete with good ol’ power.

Clint Frazier, Luke Voit, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Gary Sanchez, and Gio Urshela are only the top of this lineup. They will have a discrepancy at catcher, with the home run or strikeout Gary Sanchez versus the below-average Kyle Higashioka, but Aaron Boone likes Higashioka more because he just keeps producing and Sanchez just keeps declining.

The star aces are facing off tonight, Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell. The Yankees will pull out, because the pitching is equal, both good starting rotations and good bullpens, the coaching is slightly better for the Yankees, purely because of experience, but the hitting, the hitting of the Yankees is double the hitting of the Rays. 

Ahhh, October has finally arrived for this MLB season with an asterisk*.